Westminster officer accused of kidnap-rape is in court Friday

Anthony Orban sits in a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom during a bail hearing at April 13. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jeff Jelinek sits in a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom during a bail hearing at April 13. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Anthony Orban, left, consults with his defense attorney, Jeff Blatt, and Jeff Jelinek, right, consults with his attorney, Michael Muñoz, during a bail hearing at the Rancho Cucamonga Courthouse for a bail hearing April 13. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Anthony Orban sits in a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom during a bail hearing at April 13. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – A Westminster detective who was assigned to sex crime cases and his co-defendant, a state prison guard from Ontario, are scheduled to appear in court Friday for motions in their kidnapping and rape case.

Anthony Nicholas Orban and Jeff Thomas Jelinek, both 30 and friends since high school, are accused of orchestrating a brutal two-hour attack on a random victim April 3 after a day of drinking in the Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario area.

Lawyers for Jelinek, a correctional officer at the Chino Institute for Men, have filed a motion to get statements he made to Ontario detectives suppressed, arguing that he was not properly informed about his constitutional rights before being interrogated.

Jelinek's attorneys also have filed a motion to get charges against him dismissed, saying there was insufficient evidence at the preliminary hearing to establish him as an aider and abettor to the rape and kidnapping.

San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Deborah Ploghaus will argue against both motions Friday at San Bernardino County Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga. She also will seek to get both Orban's and Jelinek's law enforcement personnel records released.

Orban and Jelinek are being held in lieu of $2 million bail and have pleaded not guilty to charges that, if convicted, could send them to prison for life.

Orban has been charged with seven felonies and Jelinek six for the attack that was carried out in daylight after an alcohol-fueled search for women, according to court documents.

Orban, who is married, unsuccessfully tried to get a girlfriend, a dispatcher, to meet them throughout the day, Jelinek told police during his interrogation. Both Orban and Jelinek were off duty but carrying their service weapons as they visited several restaurants to drink.

The victim, a 25-year-old waitress and single mother, was leaving her job at a restaurant at the Ontario Mills Mall at about 5:15 p.m. on April 3 when she used a remote control to unlock her car door.

She testified at a preliminary hearing that as she opened the door, she saw Orban open the passenger door and point a gun at her. She testified that Jelinek, standing about a foot behind Orban, "kind of chuckled and turned around" as Orban ordered her to drive away.

Orban then forced the woman at gunpoint to drive to an industrial area in Fontana where he then attacked her, according to the criminal complaint and police statements.

Orban, a five-year veteran of the Westminster Police Department and a former Marine who served in Iraq, then ordered the woman to orally copulate him multiple times, raped her, punched her and put the barrel of his gun in her mouth and threatened to kill her, according to the criminal complaint.

During the roughly two-hour sexual assault, Jelinek called Orban 20 times from his cell phone and sent him seven text messages, prosecutors allege. The calls ranged from 4 seconds to more than six minutes. During the sexual assault, Tracy Orban, the detective's wife, called Jelinek four times but he did not answer the phone, prosecutors say.

Orban used his cell phone to take pictures of the woman performing sex acts on him and sent four photos to Jelinek's cell phone – three of which police later recovered. One picture was entitled, "Look at what I'm doing." The text messages between the two later were erased, prosecutors say.

The woman was able to escape and call for help when Orban got distracted on the phone.

Orban then locked her car, took the keys and left – not realizing he had left his service weapon on the back seat, along with an extracted bullet and his sunglasses. His last name was etched on the barrel of the gun.

Although Jelinek was not physically present during the assault, he is being charged with aiding and abetting the crime, and lying to police to protect Orban. He drove to pick Orban up after the attack and the two spent a few hours together getting their stories straight, prosecutors allege.

"For Jelinek to argue he had no idea what was going on and that he was just an innocent bystander is absurd," Ploghaus wrote in her motion arguing against the dismissal of charges against Jelinek that was filed by his attorneys, Ciprian Turcu and Michael Muñoz.

Ontario police arrested Orban and Jelinek around 9:30 that night after they returned to Ontario Mills to make what prosecutors say was a false police report.

Orban's wife, Tracy, had been ordered by Jelinek to report her husband's weapon and Jelinek's truck as missing from the mall. Tracy Orban had no idea about the kidnapping and attack, prosecutors say.

As Ontario police officers were talking to Orban and Jelinek, an in-field line up was conducted and both were arrested.

Orban's attorney, James E. Blatt, is likely to put forward a defense that involves Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome that Orban allegedly suffered as a result of his service with the Marines, according to Ploghaus' motion to secure his personnel files.

While working for the Westminster PD, Orban was hired, in 2008, by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, worked for the agency for about a week, and then resigned, according to the motion

It's unclear how or why he got that second job. Ploghaus is seeking Orban's personnel records from the Westminster PD, Riverside County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Marine Corps.

The prosecutor also hopes to secure Jelinek's personnel files while he worked for four years as a correctional officer in Chino. Prior to that job, Jelinek was an assistant manager of a Sam's Club.

Orban and Jelinek have no prior criminal records.

A trial before Judge Stephen G. Saleson is not likely to start until January, at the earliest.

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